How not to get an E-Passport
Lagos - Nigerians in desperation to travel overseas, have been asked to exercise patience and follow due process, when applying for the new ECOWAS passport, popularly known as the E-passport.
The machine-readable passport, which has been in use for a long time, will no longer be a valid traveling document by 2010. In other words, the e-passport will take the place of the machine-readable passport in less than two years.
It was gathered that the idea of the new passport was conceived to fight fraud and forgery. This informed the inclusion of many security features such as intricate designs, complex watermarks, specialist fibres (which sometimes appear over the photo) and an electronic chip secured by advanced digital encryption techniques. Unlike the machine-readable passport, the e-passport is designed to cope with normal wear and tear.
As the 2010 date approaches, the passport office, Ikoyi, Lagos, has become a Mecca of sort and touts are capitalizing on that to swindle unsuspecting Nigerians. Investigations show that touts charge between N22, 000 and N25, 000 depending on the desperation of the applicant and how soon the passport will be ready.
One of the touts who approached our correspondent during a visit to the passport office in Ikoyi on Friday, demanded N22, 000 to process the e-passport. Asked what the renewal of passport would cost, he said it would cost N6, 000 as against the official price of N2, 600(less bank charges).
The tout, who claimed to be an ‘agent’, neither confirmed nor denied that he was working for immigration officers. But he said extra charges needed to be added to the official price to facilitate early processing and issuance of the passport on time.
The ‘agent’ said he would make available his business card and phone number to acknowledge receipt of money from our correspondent. He said he could be traced within the vicinity of the passport office as “agents have been barred from the premises of the passport office.”
It was gathered that some of the touts reside at the Dodan Barracks, which is adjacent to the passport office. Last year when some of them were arrested, it was learnt that it brought friction between the police and some soldiers who reside in the barracks. Since then, both the police and immigration officers have developed lukewarm attitude towards touting around the passport office.
But, a source who craved anonymity at the office, because he was not officially authorized to speak on the issue disagreed with the notion that immigration officers have developed lukewarm attitude towards touting. Rather, the source, a senior immigration officer, said the command had done extensive campaigns both in the print and the electronic media to advise passport applicants not to patronize touts.
He said as long as applicants continued to patronize touts and the rate of unemployment remained high, touting would continue to thrive. “As long as they continue to receive patronage, they will always be there. We have ensured that they don’t operate within our premises. We also need to be careful because of the ugly incident we almost experienced a few years back when some military personnel said some of their relatives were unjustly arrested. If not for the maturity that we displayed, we would have had a similar scenario like the one we had when police and air force personnel clashed a few years back in Lagos,” the source said.
The source said obtaining the passport was the right of every bona fide Nigerian. He, however, regretted that some Nigerians were too lazy and did not want to leave the comfort of their homes and offices before obtaining their passports, adding such people would continue to find solace in touts.
According to him, “An average Nigerian always wants to cut corners and does not want to go through the normal process. You don’t have to wait till the eleventh hour before you come for your passport because it involves processing. Nigerians are impatient. The system is designed to accommodate people in a bit but most people don’t want to take their turn.
“The e-passport is designed in a way that everybody can handle. We have designated banks where you can pay. Then you can log on to our website and register online. You can go to a business center for the online processing and download our form. The fight against touting is a continuous one because it is a distraction.”
He said from the date of submission of the form, it should not take more than one week as applicants would still be subjected to an interview.
He said the digital cameras that take photographs of applicants were designed to take a minimum of 500 photographs conveniently in a day. “Although we keep ourselves within the limit, we process an average of 500 to 700 daily, including Saturdays, while we use Sundays for maintenance. We have also upgraded our main server to take up to 1,000 enrolments in a day,” he added.
The source said there was no organization without bad eggs and the immigration could not be an exception. But he explained that there was an internal disciplinary mechanism in place to checkmate errant officers. “Immigration officers should be insulated from touting. There have been cases where officers went beyond their briefs and such officers were disciplined,” he said.
While advising applicants to avoid discrepancies in the information they provide on their forms, he said the era of multiple acquisition of passports was gone. According to him, “We are on network in such a way that it is not possible to go to two different places to make a passport. Those who have the intention should not try it because the machine will reject it. Such applicant will be suspected and investigated for ulterior motives.”
Apart from the alleged impatience of many Nigerians, he said incessant power failure was another major problem militating against the early processing of passports. Most breakdowns in equipment, according to him, were traced to power problem. He described the equipment as very sensitive, adding that such equipment were better powered by electricity rather than relying on generators.
He said the Nigeria Immigration Service had rolled out in more than 20 states, adding that before the end of the year; almost all the states of the federation would have passport-processing centers.
Source: The Punch
July 25th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
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